The Time of Champions
by Yllems
Summary: Have you read "Hogwarts: A History"? You're going to wish you did. Declan Gwinn sets out to do the impossible, but throws his friends and enemies both into more trouble than has been seen for thirteen years. Then again, since it's time travel, maybe it doesn't count. (Multiple POV)


Ursula stepped out of the thestral-drawn carriages of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She thanked the boy who helped her down with a nod, then continued scanning the crowd of gathering students. She hoped to find the face of the friend who, for all her searching, she had not seen on the train to Hogwarts. The next carriages in the line arrived and departed. Hogwarts' main entrance was a beacon of light and warmth, and students bustled by, anxious to escape from the chill of September winds. Ursula waited, hoping that Declan would turn up, hoping that she was worrying over nothing.

Ursula considered Declan's vague reassurances in the letters that he had sent her over the summer. He had told her he wouldn't do anything rash until she could talk to him in person, and she had pushed away the uneasiness she felt at the sight of his unusually smudged and messy handwriting.

Beside her, her other friends engaged in polite conversation with each other. They waited with her while she worried, despite the biting cold, until eventually Annette sighed and said, "Let's go, Ursula. I'm sure your Muggleborn will turn up."

"You know his name, Annette," Ursula said, but she kept her eyes focused on scanning the faces of arriving students.

"Yes, well," Annette took Ursula's shoulder and drew her back into the group. "I'm sure he knows my name too."

Ursula could no more get Annette to respect Declan than she could get Declan to respect Annette. She had already pushed her friends' generosity by making them wait for someone they didn't even like, so Ursula let them direct her away and herd her up the long gravel path to the castle.

Hogwarts looked just as she remembered it; stone walls and hundred year old tapestries didn't change much over a few months' time. The throng inside stifled the picturesque beauty somewhat, but the familiarity of it welcomed her back more than any speech. Her first day, Ursula had stood before entering the Great Hall and hid her nervousness by keeping her face stone. She was doing it again, though for different reasons. She needed to find Declan.

There was still time. The first years hadn't yet come in from their boats. But Ursula had little idea what action to take. She had waited and watched and come up empty. In case Declan had somehow slipped past her, she searched the Slytherin table, which was a waste of time. Ursula was a second away from giving in and betraying Declan to Headmistress McGonagall when raucous laughter across the hall rose above the din of casual conversation. Nearly Headless Nick was showing the Griffindors how he got his name again, and everyone within sight was whistling, applauding, or groaning at the silvery tatters of his neck. There, in the midst of the excitement, was a clash of bright blue, the current hair-color of Teddy Lupin, the school celebrity.

Ursula abandoned Annette, Kenna, and the rest of her circle at their table, telling them that she was going to stretch her legs before the feast. They would be able to tell she was lying if they bothered to watch her, but she hoped that she would be lost in the crowd before she got to the Gryffindor table. She swerved through the mingling people, making a beeline for Lupin and his ever-present partner-in-crime, Quentin Wood. Nearly Headless Nick floated away as she walked up.

Quentin's smile dropped from his face when he spotted her. "Ursula? What are you doing on the Gryffindor side?"

"I need to talk to Edward," she said, purposefully raising her eyebrows at the rude reception. "In private."

Teddy laughed. "Oh yeah. I forgot I told people to call me Edward. Bad decision, not that anyone but you listened. I'm going back to Teddy now."

"Fine then. Can you, Teddy, come with me?"

Quentin folded his arms, and said, "What would you need to talk to us about?"

"I said I only need Teddy."

Quentin scoffed. "Yeah right. Because we'll just trust you like that."

Ursula didn't have time to repair a long standing feud, so she did the only thing she thought would work quickly enough. She said, "I'll tell you when we get out into the hallway," and left the boys behind her.

She knew that their curious natures had been successfully exploited when she left the crowd behind and still heard footsteps following her. Ursula searched for a place that no one would walk through until the end of the feast. At a suitably out-of-the-way and empty corridor, she finally turned to face the tagalongs. Sure enough, the footsteps had been Teddy and Quentin's, but their wariness made them stop a few feet away.

Teddy looked around and said, "Is Declan going to jump out somewhere and attack?"

"No." Ursula said, pressing her fingers into her palm. "I need your map of the castle."

Teddy and Quentin looked at each other. Together, they said, "What map?"

"Please, Teddy, don't play dumb. The Marauder's Map. I saw you take it out a hundred times the last year."

"You know the Marauders Map?" Teddy said innocently. "I didn't know you were such a fan of the Harry Potter biographies."

"This is serious." Ursula took a step towards the boys, which made them both stand straighter. She stopped and said, "You don't even have to lend it to me, I just have to find someone."

Teddy said, "I don't know what's going on Ursula, but I don't have it."

She bit back a frustrated jibe, and said, "Please don't think about what you feel about me. This is life and death." There. She'd said please two times. If they didn't give her the map, she'd just take it herself, no matter that there were two of them.

Teddy looked at her doubtfully, and she tried to express how sincere she was.

Teddy said, "Life and Death?"

"I don't know what will happen if I don't get that map," Ursula said, almost sighing in relief at his willingness to listen.

Teddy and Quentin looked at each other. Ursula waited, outwardly patient but inwardly crawling, for them come to a decision.

Quentin was the first to look back at her. He said, "It really isn't the Marauder's Map."

"We've been trying to copy it," Teddy said. "But it's nothing like the real thing."

Quentin pulled out of his robe a folded up, wrinkled piece of yellow parchment. Ursula walked closer to get a better look. Before she was close enough to hear, Quentin muttered something, tapping his wand to the map. Ink blossomed and rolled across the surface of the parchment.

Teddy took the map from Quentin to unfold it, so Ursula could see the still-materializing picture of a shakily inked blueprint of Hogwarts. He asked her, "Who are you looking for?"

She hesitated, wary of giving them too much information, but said, "Declan Gwinn."

Quentin pointed his wand at the biggest uninterrupted rectangle, which could have been the great hall, and muttered something. When no ink appeared there, Ursula looked back at him.

"His name is supposed to appear where he is in the school."

Teddy said, "Maybe he's in a passage we haven't found yet."

Ursula looked around for a blue-inked name outside the school.

"No," Quentin said, "I must have scryed for him wrong." He moved his wand-arm to the map again.

Ursula swept her hand in the way. "Wait," she said, pointing to a spot on the grounds, feet before the forbidden forest. "There."

"We have to catch him before he goes into the forest," Teddy said, taking the map from Quentin and turning to leave. "It isn't on the map. We won't be able to see him when he goes in."

"No, he's not moving," Ursula said.

"Huh?" Teddy checked the map again, then visibly deflated. He said, "Right, well, we need to get him before the feast starts."

Ursula shook her head and flashed Quentin and Teddy an attempt at a reassuring smile. "No need. I'll find him from here. Looks like I was overreacting. I'll see you later." She waved them off as she backed away from them. They were obviously unconvinced, but she had to let that go.

Teddy called after her, "Wait, you said this was life and death."

She responded over her shoulder as she continued walking, "I was lying, wasn't I?"

Quentin narrowed his eyes at her, in suspicion or anger she couldn't tell, but Teddy stared from the map to her. Ursula turned the corner before they could say anything else and made her way to the Herbology wing. The route she'd chosen was not the quickest way to the place Declan's name had appeared, but she could leave the castle discreetly from the greenhouses. The detour would cost her five minutes on top of the fifteen it took to cross the grounds.

As soon as Ursula made it past the venomous tentaculas and into the open, she broke into a run.

* * *

><p>Ursula couldn't find him. She looked around herself to get her bearings. She was sure that she had come to the right spot, but she should have been able to see him by now.<p>

Movement in her periphery caught Ursula's attention. She whipped around to face a human shaped blob, which morphed into two separate figures. Ursula had hoped to find Declan and stop him before Teddy and Quentin decided to follow her and caught up. She took a breath and walked over to them. They already had the map open.

"Is he still there?"

Teddy nodded. "This says he should be right," he consulted the map and aligned himself, "right there."

"Let me see."

Ursula held out her hand, and Teddy handed the map over to her. She peered at the two names on the map, and then again at the empty rolling grounds around her. The point of reference, the name Quentin Wood, was just feet away from the name Declan Gwinn. An explanation popped into Ursula's mind: Declan was down in one of Hogwarts dungeon levels, in a corridor under their feet.

Ursula only had the barest moment to consider her thought before Quentin said, "Look at this."

Quentin had taken the initiative to walk that extra few feet, and he motioned for Ursula and Teddy to join him.

Ursula wasted no time in running over to Quentin. From his perspective, she could make out the black entrance of a tunnel. Faced away from the castle, the opening was dug out of one of the many rolling hills of the Hogwarts grounds, small enough to be disguised in the landscape but large enough for a short person to walk through while crouched.

Ursula dropped the map into Quentin's hands and stepped in. She crept along by touch until, after turning left and right, the tunnel opened to a small dirt cavern. The only light was from candles placed in divots dug from the walls, and their flames cast moving shadows that played over the room. At the center sat Declan, his eyes closed.

Looking first at Declan then taking in her surroundings Ursula said, "You told me you wouldn't go through with this."

"Ursula?" Declan opened his eyes and stood up. "What are you doing here?"

Ursula heard scraping behind her, and Quentin and Teddy emerged from the small tunnel.

"Whoa," Quentin said. He walked forward, focused on the walls.

The shadows lurched, leading Ursula's eyes to the ground where three concentric circles, decorated by smaller runes within, had been carved.

"Get out of here," Declan gestured at the tunnel, but stayed in place.

Teddy and Quentin stepped away from the walls, watching them instead of responding to Declan. Ursula looked behind herself again, then stepped away from the wall closest to her. The shadows danced in something close to patterns over it, and the movement switched between a molasses pace and jerks that were almost too quick to follow.

Teddy said, "What's going on?"

Ursula kept an eye on the shadows. She said, "Stop this Declan. I want to help you."

"What did you do?" Quentin pulled at his legs, and, his voice rising, said, "I can't move my feet."

Ursula started to move, and realized that her own feet were glued in place.

"I'm not doing anything." Declan said, looking quickly between Ursula and Quentin. "I already said the incantation."

The shadows on the wall seemed to tear off pieces of the fire and consume it, although by all accounts the fire was their source.

Stuck a couple feet away from Ursula, Quentin took out his wand and shouted, "Finate Incantatum."

Teddy said, "That only works on spells."

Quentin gestured wildly with his wand, maybe trying to make the counterspell work anyway. He said, "Well you try something!"

Teddy looked around the cavern, and at the designs that were carved into the ground. The groves were being filled by the shadows, and getting darker as they watched. He took out his wand, and said, "What are these rings on the ground? I don't like that we're not in the center." He started casting lumos at the shadows, but somehow the white light seemed to avoid them.

Declan was pacing around in the center circle, he too had taken his wand out and passed it between his hands. "They're supposed to be for protection."

"Well this ring looks an awful lot like it's where sacrifices stand."

Quentin's head whipped to look at Teddy. "Sacrifices?"

Ursula needed to get Declan to focus on her. Trying to stay in control, she said, "I can't move my legs anymore Declan. Reverse this." She had her wand in her right hand, but she hadn't used it yet.

Declan shook his head wildly. "I don't know how."

She cast a rope out of her wand like a fishing line, aiming for Declan, but it disintegrated over the ring separating them. She accidently let her voice move away from calm as she said, "You can move can't you? Pull me over to you!"

"What if that happens to me?"

"You control all this, it's not going to protect you from yourself."

Quentin had been blasting spells at the ground, probably attempting to break the circle, but he stopped. He said, "I can't move my arms!"

Teddy said, "Declan hurry up and do something!"

Some kind of stiffness crept up Ursula's body from her feet, turning her into a statue. There was no pain or numbness. She could simply not move her body, and she lost more control with every second that went by. The magic had locked her in an uncomfortable twist, her feet angled toward the wall with her shoulders square toward Quentin and Teddy and her face stuck on watching Declan pace ineffectually. She said, "Declan, pull me into the circle." Her neck wouldn't move, but she could see Teddy and Quentin in her periphery.

Teddy let out an inhuman sound of distress, his attempt to use his Metamophmagus talents to call for help, but the sound cut off as his mouth was affected by the magic.

Declan shuffled his wand to his left hand one more time, made a low groan, and swung his right arm toward Ursula.

He stopped too suddenly, frozen in place, his eyes fixed on her. Ursula could no longer move her eyes either; she could only stare at Declan's dead stillness as the shadows extinguished the flames. A special darkness leapt off the walls and rose from the ground to surround everything in the cavern. Quentin and Teddy were spared from the black, their bodies lit by firelight that no longer had a source. Declan, in the center, was the last to be covered. The black crept over him from behind, engulfing him until all she could see of him was his hand reaching toward her.


End file.
